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Improving green productivity (GP) is critical for achieving global sustainable green development. Yet, past efficiency studies on the African continent have ignored Africa's GP, estimation, and driving factors. Specifically, the role of sovereign debt vulnerability, environmental entrepreneurship, and institutional quality in ensuring Africa's green productivity development is lacking. Therefore, this study built a meta‐frontier biennial weighted modified data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate green productivity across resource‐intensive and non‐resource‐intensive African countries from 2010 to 2019. Further, the study adopted the global Malmquist‐Luenberger productivity index (GML) to investigate the dynamic changes in African green productivity growth. The results suggest that only a few African countries are efficient, implying more room for improvement for the other countries. The heterogeneity of green productivity across the resource's classification exhibits significant disparity. The technology gap also prevails among the two resource classifications of African countries. The GML index indicates that Africa's green productivity is mainly explained by technical change instead of efficiency change. The bootstrap truncation regression suggests an inverted U‐shaped nexus between growth and green productivity in Africa and resource‐intensive countries (RIC). Green environmental entrepreneurship positively affects green productivity in Africa. On the components of institutional quality, we observed that the rule of law positively influences green productivity in non‐resource‐intensive countries (NRIC) and the whole of Africa. In contrast, political stability, government effectiveness, voice and corruption negatively affected green productivity in NRIC. Also, foreign direct investment (FDI) and sovereign debt vulnerability negatively correlate to green productivity in Africa as a whole and NRIC, respectively. The findings of this study aid in raising awareness of green productivity in developing countries, which is crucial in boosting global green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation of green development is crucial for policy analysis and decision‐making. To address the research gap on green development assessment systems, this study first presents the Super‐efficiency Bounded Adjusted Measure model to gage the green growth index and economic growth index. This analysis involves evaluation of the coupling coordination degree. Through the analysis of the coordination between green growth and economic growth leads to recommendations for each region under consideration in regards to promotion of the components of the sustainable growth. This study presents the model that melds the objectives of the green and economic growth and uses the results for constructing the sustainable development Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient for the analysis of the differences in the sustainable development levels across the regions. The empirical case is presented to show the possibilities for application of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European transition to green economy is based on long-term strategies. The Europe 2020 Strategy was launched in 2010 in order to promote smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth in the region. Later, the ambitions regarding this strategy were followed by the Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goals. Now, the effort of countries towards the green economy is even more relevant than ever because of the context of today's global energy crisis and economic uncertainty due to many challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic or Russia invasion of Ukraine. This paper seeks to assess the countries' achievements in seeking climate change and energy targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy by applying the innovative multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique. The kernel-based comprehensive assessment (KerCA) method was applied for the calculations of the progress achieved and countries' rankings. It allows to evaluate countries' achievements and compare them using the mathematical models. The analysis of the national target implementation in the countries allows to determine the compliance of countries with their commitments and liability towards other countries and the European Union (EU). An analysis of the implementation of the strategy can serve as a guide to further develop climate change and energy policy in the region. Furthermore, the added value of the article is systematic overview of scientific studies proposing different methodologies for the analysis of target implementation at the whole region level. The novelty of this paper also relies on the approach, which considers not only the level of achievement of the target, but also assesses the excess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, humanity has faced with multiple crises, both of economic and environmental nature. Among the key reasons for such turbulences, the deteriorating agri-environmental situation appears as an important facet. This article evaluates agri-environmental situation of selected European Union (EU) countries using the multi-criteria decision making methods (SAW, TOPSIS, and EDAS) to identify the potential strategies for improvement of agricultural activities and environmental situation in general. The set of indicators, compiled from the database, prepared by the European Commission (EC) was used for this research. The empirical results show that the trends in agri-environmental situation of selected EU countries are similar under all the methods used. The best agri-environmental situation both at the beginning and at the end of the research period was in Finland, Ireland, and Sweden. On contrary, the worst situation was identified in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. The only case of decline in the agri-environmental performance is observed for Lithuania, whereas ascension in ranks is observed for Austria and Poland. The results are of particular importance in the period of development of agri-environment and climate schemes for the European Union Common Agricultural Policy post-2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial agglomeration (FA) may play an essential role in enhancing energy efficiency (EE) and, thus, is important from both theoretical and empirical viewpoints. However, few studies have investigated the causal nonlinear relationship between FA and EE. Hence, we first extend the novel ray slacks-based measure with global technology to evaluate the urban EE in China during 2003–2018. Next, we reexamine the nonlinear causality of FA on EE and then explore the underlying impact mechanism. The empirical results show that China's urban EE is generally relatively low with distinct patterns of regional differences. Moreover, we find that the causal relationship between FA and EE follows an inverted U-shaped function rather than a linear one. FA promotes the improvement of EE only up to a certain threshold point, after which it reverses into an inhibitory effect. A further analysis based on the two-regime spatial Durbin panel model suggests that FA can indeed improve the EE of surrounding cities through positive externalities when the degree of FA in focal cities is not substantially greater than that in surrounding cities. However, when financial resources absorbed in certain focal cities become increasingly higher than that in most surrounding cities, the positive spillover effect would gradually disappear and even reverse into an undesirable siphon, thereby inhibiting the improvement of overall EE. These findings provide new insights for understanding the role of FA in sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of bioeconomy is important in seeking to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, in recent years, more attention is focused on sustainable bioeconomy. Referring to weak and strong sustainability approaches, many authors stated that bioeconomy is related only to weak sustainability, but this study provides a framework for policy makers that allows the definition and implementation of the bioeconomy based on the strong sustainability approach. Furthermore, researchers evaluating bioeconomy implementation conventionally encompassed the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of the impact of bio‐products; however, they did not consider the strong sustainability approach. Strong sustainability additionally requires not crossing ecological thresholds and, thus, implies consideration of planetary boundaries. Therefore, the inclusion of land footprint and biocapacity measures in the bioeconomy strategy, verifying that the land footprint does not exceed the level of biocapacity, is essential for the creation of a strongly sustainable bioeconomy. This study embarks on the definition of the bioeconomy based on strong sustainability and contributes to the discussion about bioeconomy implementation in the context of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the sustainable energy systems is crucial for economic growth and climate change mitigation. This paper proposes a nonparametric approach based on the by-production technology comprising the economic and environmental sub-technologies. We consider both renewable and fossil energy in the analysis. This approach allows identifying the most relevant energy development strategies at the country level. We examine 42 countries from the OECD, B(R)ICS and ASEAN. The results indicate that most of the countries (23) need to exploit both the energy intensity and carbon factor (energy-mix) effects to ensure sustainable energy development, yet four countries also need to increase the use of the renewable energy in order to secure the economic growth. During 1990–2018, an upward trend for the CO 2 emission shadow price is observed for the selected countries which suggests an improving environmental performance. The results of this study provide further guidelines for adopting effective market-oriented policy measures in the energy sector. • A Data Envelopment Analysis model is constructed to identify performance gaps. • Both energy intensity and energy-mix adjustments are modelled. • Double frontier model is used. • The empirical study covers OECD, B(R)ICS and ASEAN countries. • Most of the countries need to opt for combined energy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Achieving carbon neutrality is crucial for the global economy to ensure sustainable development. Quantitative approaches are needed to track the emissions and determinants thereof. The Generalized Divisia Index (GDI) has received wide attention to quantify major factors driving CO 2 emissions. However, there has been no research on the application of GDI to decompose the relative variables, such as Aggregate Carbon Intensity (ACI). What is more, GDI has not been applied for spatial decomposition. To address these gaps, the present study constructs temporal-spatial GDI models to decompose the dynamics in ACI of thermal electricity generation. The case of China during 2000–2019 is considered. The results suggest that East, Central, and Northwest regions contributed to the mitigation of national ACI, whereas North and Northeast lagged behind. The temporal decomposition results imply that CO 2 emissions is the major factor causing ACI increase, whereas energy-mix promotes reduction in ACI. Energy consumption can be decoupled from ACI, but it is cumbersome to decouple CO 2 emission and electricity production from ACI. The spatial decomposition results indicate that CO 2 emission and energy consumption induce spatial differences to the highest extent. • The paper develops the Generalized Divisia Index approach. • Decomposition of the relative variable is described. • The aggregate carbon intensity is decomposed for thermal power generation. • The spatial decomposition is presented for the case of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The penetration of renewable energy is one of the main challenges for sustainable energy development. Local governments across the European Union commit to development and implementation of the Sustainable Energy (and Climate) Action Plan. This paper focuses on the case of Lithuania—a Central and Eastern European country. Almost one-third of Lithuanian municipalities have joined the Covenant of Mayors and prepared the plans that include SWOT analysis. However, there is a lack of information on how those plans contribute to climate change mitigation and sustainable energy development. This study identifies the links between key policy financial instruments, increasing energy efficiency. The Strategic Action Plans aimed at reducing GHG emissions and energy consumption in Lithuanian municipalities are analyzed. The challenges in promoting the renewable energy generation in Lithuanian rural regions are discussed. Moreover, the importance of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats identified is elicited at the local level. The study uses a combination of methods, such as expert surveys and SWOT analysis, that complements the tools used for regional energy climate planning and allows for overarching analysis. The expert survey shows that priority is given for renovation of buildings and modernization of energy infrastructure, making them more sustainable and more energy efficient. The results also show that, in the case of Lithuania (and possibly elsewhere in the post-Soviet countries), conditions and opportunities should be created beforehand to increase energy efficiency. Once this is achieved, the policies should focus on energy transition by switching to sustainable energy resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the relationship between sustainability and resilience concepts in agriculture. First, we discuss the theoretical preliminaries related to the definition of these two concepts. Indeed, the literature considers sustainability as a proxy for resilience and vice versa in the context of agriculture. Intuitively, one may expect that sustainability and resilience are positively correlated. Second, we challenge these insights by embarking on empirical analysis directed at the Northern European countries (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden) that are member states of the European Union. The criteria describing sustainability and economic resilience are identified for the empirical analysis. Third, the criteria decision making is applied to derive the composite indicators. The contemporaneous correlation between the composite indicators of sustainability and economic resilience is rather weak across the analyzed countries. However, the correlation increases in case the first-order differences of the composite indicators are considered. Therefore, economic resilience indicators cannot be replaced by sustainability-related ones and economic resilience should be taken as an additional facet of the economic sustainability when developing composite indicators. • The indicators identifying agricultural sustainability and resilience are established. • The multi-criteria approach is taken for aggregation. • The case of the Northern Europe is considered. • The direct relationship between agricultural sustainability and economic resilience is observed. • The complementarity of the two notions is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The choice of the energy storage technology involves multiple criteria that need to be simultaneously considered in the energy planning process. The development of sustainable energy system requires to take into account not only technical characteristics of storage technologies but also to pursue sustainability issues. The paper aims to perform not-site-specific sustainability assessment of the main types of energy storage technologies (mechanical, chemical, electrochemical and thermal) based on the developed advanced multi-criteria technique. The paper follows the vein of the coordinated Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and extends it to the interval environment. A geometric integer programming model is introduced to identify the interval for the degree of coordination. The proposed method is, therefore, able to handle uncertainty and coordinate performance of the alternatives with respect to multiple criteria. Sustainability assessment of energy storage technologies is performed based on the most important technological, economic, environmental and social criteria. The results showed that the most sustainable energy storage technologies are mechanical and thermal ones (utility scores range in between 1 and 0.75). The remaining technologies exhibit utility scores of 0.69 at most. The least appealing options are electrochemical storage technologies. • The energy storage systems are compared. • Economic, environmental, social and technical criteria are considered. • The interval-valued analysis is carried out. • The coordination degree is proposed for the interval data. • A more comprehensive analysis is possible due to the revised model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Renewable heating technologies are prioritized • Multiple criteria analysis is carried out • The BWM-WASPAS-IN framework is proposed • The wood pellet boilers and solar heating are the most attractive This paper proposes a multi-criteria decision framework for promotion of the heating systems based on the renewable energy sources. The objective and subjective data are taken into consideration by the virtue of the relevant quantitative techniques. The paper integrates the Best-Worst method (BWM) and modifies the Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) method. The BWM is utilized for eliciting the weights of the criteria during the expert survey. We apply the interval-normalized WASPAS for the multi-criteria ranking of the heating technologies. Thus, the uncertainty is taken into consideration. The empirical application deals with the case of Lithuania where modernization of the heating system is rather important in order to reduce energy poverty and increase the quality of life. Three heating technologies (i.e. heat pumps, solar heating and wood pellet boilers) are assessed through the expert survey and multi-criteria evaluation methods. The multi-criteria analysis suggests wood pellet boilers and solar heating dominate the heat pumps in terms of the overall utility and could be promoted as the most suitable renewable heating technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving green innovation efficiency (GIE) is crucial for attaining sustainability in China's stage of high-quality development. However, there is a paucity of research on the roles of and links among the government and market in GIE. This study bridges this research gap by unifying marketization, local government competition, and GIE into one empirical framework. First, we extend a super-efficiency Ray slacks-based measure model to evaluate provincial GIE in China during 1997–2018 and then analyze its evolution of spatial-temporal dynamics. Subsequently, marketization, local government competition, and GIE are incorporated into a nest of spatial panel models to address the endogeneity concerns resulting from model misspecification and omitted variables. The empirical results show that China's GIE at the national level is only 0.4813, and above 80% of provinces are far from reaching the green innovation frontier. Moreover, the observed imbalance in GIE between regions continues to worsen; notably, this coincides with the emergence of a pattern under which the gap between the north and south is widening. Furthermore, the seven spatial panel models assessed in this study reveal that local government competition not only has a direct inhibitory effect on GIE, but also indirectly impedes the corresponding promotional effect of marketization. This finding provides new evidence supporting the "grabbing hand of government" view and sheds light on the behaviors of the market and government in green innovation development. [Display omitted] • Data envelopment analysis applied for evaluation of green innovation efficiency (GIE). • Extended super-efficiency ray slacks-based model is used. • Evolution of spatial-temporal dynamics in China from 1997 to 2018 was addressed. • Marketization, competition and GIE are incorporated into a nest of spatial panel model. • Provides understanding of market behavior and the government in the green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creation of sustainable society and transition to low-carbon energy system are the main priorities of the EU policy. Energy poverty (EP) is one of the most important social problems linked to low-carbon transition as creation of carbon neutral societies requires to address other important sustainability issues linked with carbon-free future. Although assessment of EP is a prerequisite for designing policy initiatives to alleviate the problem. The article provides a methodological framework for the EP assessment taking into account goals of low-carbon energy transition and creation of sustainable carbon-neutral society. The proposed evaluation tool can be applied in different settings and used to track the relative progress of the countries in pursuing low-carbon transition and sustainable societies development. The Bellagio Sustainability Assessment and Measurement Principles (STAMP) were followed throughout the process of indicators selection and assessment. In order to determine countries' achievements over time, the assessment was performed in 2010 and 2018 by applying two multi-criteria techniques. The results show that the Nordic countries stand out from other EU member states in terms of just low-carbon energy transition progress because of their low poverty indicators in households, high standard of living, and high share of renewable energy. • An innovative approach based on the Bellagio STAMP and multi-criteria techniques was developed. • Multi-criteria analysis and expert survey were applied for energy poverty measurement in the EU. • Sweden and Finland and other Nordic countries have received the highest ranking. • The lowest in the ranking was Bulgaria, following by Cyprus and Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes in energy use and energy-mix are important in ensuring the implementation of the sustainability goals, especially those related to the climate change. Even though there have been attempts to analyse the energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in the European Union, there is still a lack of research that considers structural change, fossil energy consumption, and energy-mix simultaneously. In this context, the present paper addresses the growth in energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the European Union (EU) agriculture. The index decomposition analysis based on the logarithmic mean Divisia index is implemented over the period of 2004–2021. The change in the GHG intensity at the EU level is factorized with respect to the structural effect and those related to the energy intensity, the share of the fossil energy, and carbon factor for the fossil energy. The results suggest that a decline in the energy intensity appeared as the main driver pushing the energy-related GHG emission intensity down in the EU agriculture. This calls for further actions directed towards the increase of the use of renewables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitioning to environmentally friendly economic growth is crucial for achieving sustainable development. Digital inclusive finance (DIF) can promote environmentally friendly economic activities and play a crucial role in fostering green and low-carbon development. In this context, a fundamental research question revolves around the theoretical foundations of how DIF impacts the growth of green total factor productivity (GTFP) and whether this relationship can be empirically verified. This question is particularly relevant for rural areas where financial innovations are necessary for the advancement of businesses and society as a whole. Additionally, expanding DIF can bring benefits to the environment, which is affected by agricultural activities. Therefore, it is important to assess the mechanisms behind the development of DIF and its impact on agricultural productivity growth. This paper presents an analysis of the interaction between DIF and GTFP growth in China's agricultural sector. Panel data from 2012 to 2019 at the province level are used for this analysis. The results reveal that GTFP and DIF demonstrate similar growth patterns, with DIF significantly contributing to GTFP growth. DIF can enhance GTFP by promoting information channels and fostering innovation in green technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]